On the personality of Lightroom

We wanted Lightroom to seem elegant. To exhibit grace. To show an attention to style beyond the utilitarian aspect that dominated Adobe’s products up to that time. We wanted a richer UI experience.

We’ve been successful in many ways. At the same time, we are painfully aware that there are places where we could be yet more graceful or elegant.

If you’re interested in more, see also Mark’s interview on since1968.com, or listen to the podcast in
which he & other members of the Lightroom team tackle these issues. As for the personas of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash, see previous.

RapidFixer CS3: Powerful add-on for Bridge

The new RapidFixer extension for Adobe Bridge CS3 helps unlock the power of Camera Raw. Created by photographer Peter Krogh & developer Tom Nolan, RapidFixer adds quick adjustment strips to the Bridge interface. Now, instead of needing to pop into the Camera Raw dialog to apply image adjustments (converting to black & white, say, or bumping up exposure by 1/3 stop), you can use RapidFixer to tweak settings on one or more files.

Peter provides a nice overview of the tools in this video–adjusting white balance, applying vignettes, and more. At around the 2/3rds mark he shows some interesting modifications that facilitate working on photographic negatives.

I don’t shoot massive numbers of images, but I’ve found RapidFixer extremely handy in reviewing and tweaking my shots. If you’re crunching a large number of images via Bridge & Camera Raw, you’ll likely find the $49 price of RapidFixer a bargain.